Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A: 30.08.26
Cathedral of the Assumption, Carlow
Introduction:
It makes such great sense to me to launch my Pastoral Letter here in the Cathedral of our diocese. Published during the week, it says no more than what has been flagged in several pastoral letters issued in recent times (2022, 2024 and in February this year).
Indeed declining numbers of priests and the scarcity of vocations is nothing new. We can go back to Bishop Larry Ryan’s time when he sounded the alarm bells in 1998 launching the ‘Challenging Times’ campaign. The truth is that the diocese for the last 70 years has been carried along by the boom of vocations in the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s. Many have very generously stayed working for which I, those before me, and their parishioners remain deeply grateful.
In our second reading St. Paul reminds us that just like the early Christian community, we too must discern, we must discover, God’s will for us, what is the right thing to do and then we must do it. Matthew’s gospel reminds us pain and suffering are always part of this response.
Peter loves Jesus, but he wanted a Christ without a Cross, a victory without a sacrifice, an Easter without Good Friday. As we gather and ask “what is God saying, what is God asking, of the Church in Kildare & Leighlin at this time?”, each of us are called to play our part – for failures, for those moments of reticence, for the times where we’ve been laggards, we pray for forgiveness …
- Lord Jesus, you are forgiving and kind to all who call on you,
Lord, have mercy …
- Lord Jesus, for you my soul is thirsting,
Christ, have mercy …
- Lord Jesus, you guard us in the shadow of your wings,
Lord, have mercy …
Homily:
Pastoral Letters take their cue from the New Testament texts, such as First and Second Timothy and Titus; all written to guide the early church leaders on matters of governance, pastoral practice, doctrine and general conduct. Bishops might issue one or two a year. They normally are written to address a situation or a particular context. They might be written by a bishop for the concerns of his local diocese or they could be written by the entire hierarchy to address a particular situation, perhaps an upcoming Referendum or a moment in history.
In recent times much was made by historians of the Pastoral Letter issued by the Irish Hierarchy in October 1922 which forbade the sacraments to some who were active in the Civil War.
The first pastoral letter I wrote was for Good Shepherd Sunday 2014, and the most recent one was written following the clergy changes announced earlier this month. As it was a list of reductions, retirements and absences, it made for stark reading for everyone, myself included. So I thought it might be opportune to speak to these set of changes in the context of a pastoral letter.
I won’t read it word for word, line by line, but just reflect on a few points. In the first paragraph I speak of the age profile of our priests, and the fact that “many of them are serving parishes, long beyond the acceptable retirement age in the secular world”. By the end of next month there will be 45 priests over 75 in the diocese; 27 of them holding posts in parishes, 10 of them are Parish Priests/Administrators. This is the generosity I spoke about earlier.
While I speak of a “new reality”, in honesty we have seen it coming and there has been groundwork undertaken that is helping us and will help us – the ordination of deacons, the training of lay pastoral ministers, increasing number of lay people, religious and clergy working togther in councils, commissions and parish groups. But this groundwork needs the cooperation not just of a few but of all in our parishes. The time has come for people across the diocese to recognise that the parish, as the place where the Church lives, will be as strong and as vibrant as people’s cooperation and generosity with their gifts and the resources, that we can be assured God has provided in every one of our 56 parishes.
Back to Bishop Larry Ryan and the launch in the late 1990’s of ‘Challenging Times’, the real act of prophesy is not about predicting how numbers will change, because we know they will, but to understand what this is saying to us and how best we can respond. St. Paul reminds us we need to discern God’s will for us, for our time, so what is he asking of us in Kildare & Leighlin at this time? How can our parishes respond to the call to become the parishes of the baptised? Communities of faith, hope and love.
First of all communities, places of welcome where all feel welcomed. Faith where there are formation programmes offered perhaps at Pastoral Area level, to deepen our faith, to understand our faith. Hope where liturgy is celebrated well and Love where the parish reaches out to the sick, the dying, the lonely and the alone.
Change is never easy. We can all be prone to waiting until we have no choice and only take it fully on board when change comes to our door. Our diocese has 56 parishes and 117 churches. It is natural that people are tied to their parish and their local church. However, we have now reached the point when it is not possible for every parish to have a resident priest.
In the past year, we have grouped the parishes in 11 Pastoral areas so that they can pull together and come up with the best schedule of Masses given the priests available. Adjustments will have to be made and some of these will be difficult to accept. I encourage engagement by all in this process; also in the letter “I ask parishioners not to make uunreasonable demands or to have unrealistic expectations of their priest”.
In this evening gospel, Peter remonstrates with Jesus about taking the road to Calvary. He cries out “Heaven preserve you Lord, this must not happen to you”[1]. What the Lord teaches Peter and all of us is that sacrifice is part of our journey if we want to be his true follower. This is a spiritual challenge that we are facing. It will test us and we will need to think beyond our own concerns. That prophetic question remains with us: “what is God saying, what is God asking, of the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin at this time?”
We need more and more Lay involvement and Lay leadership. We need to warmly welcome and support those who offer themselves for a ministry in their parish or pastoral area.
As I mentioned in my announcement of the clergy changes for 2026, I will continue to seek out international priests to serve in our diocese. But I‘m also very conscious while we warmly welcome those who choose to serve in our diocese, I ask everyone to pray for vocations from our own parishes, our own diocese, to the priesthood. We need priests. I also ask everyone to pray for our priests and to continue to support them, encourage them, affirm them.
But remember the Final Document of the Univeral Synodal journey in late 2024 reminded us: “Baptism is the foundation of Christian life. This is because it introduces everyone to the greatest gift, which is to be children of God, that is, to share in Jesus’ relationship to the Father in the Spirit. There is nothing higher than this baptismal dignity, equally bestowed upon each person”[2]. In other words baptism is a much more important sacrament than ordination, so let’s live up to our own baptismal calling. As I say in the letter “it is out of a deeper and richer understanding of what our baptism means that we all begin to find our place in the Church today”. God always provides, but that provision needs our cooperation. We can be hope-filled in the belief that God has given us what we need, but we can’t be complacent and ignore our part in bringing that to fruition.
We must never forget the Church belongs to Christ whom we serve. We can be consoled and inspired by the witness of those who went before us, who knew great hardship and sacrifice but were able to keep the flame of faith burning. While these are certainly challenging times, we remain a people of hope. There will always be changes in life, but there are realities which do not change and that is our faith in God who as I sign off in the pastoral letter “can do immeasurably more than we can ever ask or imagine”[3]. I commend this Pastoral Letter to your kind attention.
[1] Mt.16:22
[2] Final Document of the Universal Synod, ‘Communion, Participation, Mission’, ¶21, 2024
[3] Ep.3:20